David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State and their officials. I will start by echoing the Minister's comments on immigrants who work in the healthcare service and the many people who keep our health services going who have come from so many different countries around the world. In the past 18 months, I have visited 18 hospitals and have met a lot of staff. I am blown away by the talent and the energy we have, even though there is a lot of feedback as regards burnout, which I am sure the Minister hears as well. They have been through a very difficult period with Covid and then into very difficult times in emergency departments, with demand and pressures on hospitals. I am also taken by the very talented people we have from multiple different countries working in our health services. Not only are they very welcome, but they are needed. If they were not there, our health services would collapse, and people need to really reflect on that. I think the vast majority of people do and accept it, so we are talking about a tiny minority of people who have very extreme views that are not acceptable. I should add that it is not just in hospitals but also in community care, home help and so on. We have many people who come from different countries who provide those services as well. They are all welcome and play a vital part in our health services.

If I may move to the Supplementary Estimate, when Bernard Gloster was here two weeks ago, I think, I put it to him that there was a difference between the cash deficit for the end of this year and what he described as accruals. He put it very bluntly that the deficit is the deficit, that whatever is owed is owed, and that, whether it is paid in January, February or March of next year, it is still expenditure arising from 2023. He made it very clear that the deficit is likely to be closer to €1.4 billion to €1.5 billion and that, even though the Revised Estimate is just over €1 billion, there is still a shortfall of about €400 million or €500 million. He has said that, from his perspective, the first charge for 2024 will be that carryover, the difference between that €1.5 billion, or whatever it might end up being, and that €1 billion that has now been secured. First of all, does the Minister accept that?